Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Excerpt from Wikipedia: Julia Brystiger (née Prajs, born November 25, 1902, in
Stryj – died November 9, 1975, in Warsaw) was a Polish Communist activist and
member of the security apparatus in Stalinist Poland. She was also known as Julia
Brystygier, Bristiger, Brustiger, Briestiger, Brystygierowa,
Bristigierowa, and by her nicknames – given by the victims of torture: Luna,
Bloody Luna, Daria, Ksenia, and Maria. The nickname
Bloody Luna was a direct reference of her Gestapo-like methods during
interrogations. Her pen name was Julia Preiss.

In the Polish official archives, there is an instruction
written by Brystygier to her subordinates, about the purpose of torture:

“In fact, the Polish intelligentsia as such is against the Communist
system and basically, it is impossible to re-educate it. All that remains is to
liquidate it. However, since we must not repeat the mistake of the Russians
after the 1917 revolution, when all intelligentsia members were exterminated,
and the country did not develop correctly afterwards, we have to create such a
system of terror and pressure that the members of the intelligentsia would not
dare to be politically active.” [Czeslaw
Leopold and Krzysztof Lechicki, Political
Prisoners in Poland 1945-1956, Mloda
Polska, Gdańsk, page 20.]

Brystiger personally oversaw the first stages of each UB
investigation at her place of employment. She would torture the captured
persons using her own methods such as whipping male victims’ genitals.